More cameras for the province of Quebec

Well, they're going to deploy another 29 cameras around the province because "the 15 devices already in place in the province have been successful in getting drivers to slow down."

Which is a truly interesting statement, considering that six of the existing 15 cameras are red light, rather than speed cameras.

Further, the minister "denied suggestions from critics the measure is nothing but a cash cow for the government"

Which, of course was rebuked by the mayor of Montreal who stated that he will refuse any new cameras unless the city gets to keep the revenue from them.

Naturally, the fact that they paid off the installations (which apparently cost about $11.8 million for 15 cameras - which seems to me to be an insane amount) and took in some $20 million in fines over the 18 month trial period was lost on the minister, because "it isn't about the money" (right).

What I personally found interesting was that one issue is that these new locations are apparently 'difficult to police', yet are supposedly where there are 'high accident rates and high rates of offense', which to me sounds like a heck of an oxymoron - if they KNOW there are a lot of offenders, then they could easily deploy police there to enforce safety.

Also, since there are no demerit points associated with speed and redlight cam tickets, all these things are is a toll booth that charges only those who wish to speed or to sail through a light without stopping.

Last (well, not likely 'last', but the last point I'm making in this post), the reason they deployed the trial in the first place was that (and I quote from a government report):

"However, the period from 2001 to 2006 was marked by an uptrend in the number of traffic fatalities"

Just for the record, the number went from 610 in 2001 to 721 - however 2001 was anomalous. There were ~730 deaths in 2000 and ~706 in 2002 and that increase is statistically insignificant in an environment where there are almost 5 million drivers and 5.5 million vehicles - and it should be noted that the number of deaths in the following year (2007) fell to 608. But of course, they leave out 2007 and beyond because it negatively impacts on their grave statistics.

Another statistic that they neatly exclude is that traffic deaths have been declining steadily since 1973, when 2,209 people were killed - and, coupled to that reduction has been a roughly tripling of the number of vehicles and drivers over the same period. And, of course there were no speed or red light cameras during that entire period (though cars were better designed).

Note that speed and red light cameras were introduced in mid 2009 for an 18 month trial - before then there were no automated cameras except for a trial in the late 1960s, which was ruled 'ineffective' - I suppose that was before they discovered that it wasn't about enforcement.

Some of that data can be seen at the following link:

http://www.tac-atc.ca/english/resourcecentre/readingroom/con...

So, if ANYONE tries to tell you that it isn't about the money, spit in their eye.